The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has scheduled the hearing of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi’s appeals against their convictions in the £190 million corruption case for April 30. A division bench, consisting of Chief Justice Sardar Sarfaraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif, will preside over the proceedings.
Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi had approached the IHC following their sentencing by Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed Rana in January 2025, where they were handed 14-year and seven-year prison terms respectively. Notably, earlier in March, the court fined Rs100,000 to the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) special prosecutor for employing delaying tactics during the case proceedings.
Khan has been incarcerated since August 2023 and is facing multiple cases, including charges related to corruption and terrorism, after being removed from office through a no-confidence vote in April 2022. The case in question, known as the Al-Qadir Trust or the £190 million case, revolves around allegations that in 2019, Imran Khan and others manipulated Rs50 billion (equivalent to £190 million at the time) transferred by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government during his premiership.
This sum pertains to assets of a property tycoon seized by the NCA during the PTI government’s tenure. The British agency had clarified that the funds were to be transferred to Pakistan as part of a civil settlement and did not imply any finding of guilt. However, the NAB filed a reference in December 2023 and subsequently charged Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi on February 27, 2024, alleging that the settlement with the British agency was finalized and approved by Imran Khan on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the confidential details of the agreement.
